Sylvia De Swaan says, "The Elusive Self... Who am I really, I ask myself as I watch my elongated shadow play across the railroad tracks along Lake Ontario; or my shattered reflection in a window of an abandoned gas station on route 49; or when I hold an I.D. picture from my childhood refugee papers against the background of a train journey speeding through post communist Eastern Europe; or me with a long ago lover in a penny arcade photo booth in the 1990s.

My self-portraits are about intangible and fleeting moments of memory; mining the past, remembered dreams, interior spaces. They are about metaphor, poetry, vibration."

REFLECTION IN A SHATTERED GLASS by Sylvia de Swaan(Click on image for larger view)

PRAGUE TO BERLIN 1990 by Sylvia de Swaan(Click on image for larger view)

DOOR 1 by Alberto Mesirca(Click on image for larger view)

Alberto Mesirca says, "When I photograph I like to approach my subject either from a geometrical and rational perspective, possibly trying to find the abstract in reality and attempting to rationalize it. Or from a sociological perspective, investigating the social or historical context of also a minimal aspect of reality that, like in a fractal, represents the whole.
These processes, I believe, inevitably lead to a more intimate knowledge and appreciation of the reality before me.

As a matter of fact when I shoot I normally start from wide angle and then I focalize into some details that I think convey the nature of the subject.
I do not like to heavily post process my pictures as I want to convey the reality as it was seen and lived."

Alberto Mesirca (b. 1964) is a Self-taught photographer, he discovered photography when he was a teen but he started practicing it at an advanced amateur level for 4 years now. He grew up in Rome (Italy) and after having obtained a Master in Telecommunications Engineering he lived and worked in different countries (Hong Kong, Argentina, USA, Belgium, United Arab Emirates) following his wife on postings abroad.
He currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

He approaches his subjects in two ways. One is from a geometrical and rational perspective, possibly trying to find the abstract in reality and attempting to rationalize it. The other is from a sociological perspective, investigating the social, economical and historical context of also minimal aspects of reality that, like in a fractal, represent the whole.
He believes that these processes inevitably lead to a more intimate knowledge and appreciation of the reality before him.
He does not like to overly modify his photos in post processing as for him the representation of reality as actually seen is vey important and also because during the film era he shot with slides, where the scope of modifications was minimal.

His current projects are “Life on oil” investigating how life goes on amid the oil exploitation in Los Angeles and “Invisible Boundaries” investigating the boundaries that exist in Los Angeles but not often seen, like gang territories or city limits.

Transitioning from the fashion industry, worked with renowned magazines like Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Interview, Numero, etc to the art world, she exposed her first solo show Vollipsis, curated by Etienne Russo, during Paris Photo 2014.

Now working on a social foto project about homeless people in Los Angeles called "Skid Row Faces"

Alyssa Fujita Karoui says, "I've learned that sometimes, when I walk around the city with my camera, I can tame the inner chatter in my mind. By looking attentively at ephemeral moments and seemingly insignificant objects of the everyday, minor revelations come to the surface, time flows in strange ways and sight becomes mysteriously heightened. My photographs are a conversation with the ordinary, a momentary access to a timeless present where unspectacular scenarios connect us to larger moments of clarity, intimacy and grace."

Karoui is a Japanese-Tunisian artist based in San Francisco. Alyssa left the corporate world of Information Systems consulting for the life-changing pursuit of photography. She graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in the Fall of 2015 with a BFA in photography. Her images are invitations to pause, small meditations creating space for contemplation and reflection upon a shared perceptual existence.

KAROUI SIDE MIRROR FROM THE ARROGANCE OF BELONGING by Alyssa Fujita(Click on image for larger view)

WALL PLANTS FROM MINOR REVELATIONS by Alyssa Fujita(Click on image for larger view)

AN OLD LADY HERSELF AND THE CITY by Ana Cordeiro(Click on image for larger view)

Ana Paula Cordeiro says, "Coherence and consistency are my keywords for coping with a photographic memory. The analytical aspect of my personality struggles with the multifaceted stories of each encounter: the many versions of ourselves we produce as we move on. A clear recollection may create multiples, may generate a variable edition of selves - which by themselves are harmless, until they start conflicting with one another.

Incoherently and inconsistently I witness as we move on, leaving behind our all-but-linear narratives - the many books within books of our selves. The method of my artistic inquiry is in the making of books. The artistic inquiry itself is the making of books.

From an artistic-alienated background, I first had contact with Visual Arts through photography. However, after two solo shows and experience as professional assistant I felt the need of developing a set of skills for translating visual experiences into practical objects.

I started as work/study at The Center for Book Arts in 2002, was an intern at the Women's Studio Workshop in 2003 and was awarded a Stein Scholarship Residency in 2005 back at The Center for Book Arts, which followed intense studio production, assistant-ships and continuous workshops both as a teacher and as a student. I am nowadays a full-time bookmaker, my time being divided between collaborations, commissions and my own artistic practice, which has layered photography with letterpress printing. I’ve been part of various group shows nationwide, and since 2008 the work I create and produce has been collected privately and institutionally."

When I saw the “Vernacular” theme of your exhibit, all of the images I took on that trip came immediately to mind. The era of Route 66 evokes a time of family traveling with cheap gas stopping at motels and cafes , drinking Cokes and playing the juke box. Many of those are now a thing in the past, but the memory of them brings everyone of a certain age right back to that point in time."

My images have been juried into exhibits in Wisconsin, New York, Massachusetts, Oregon, California, Texas and Germany. I have been published in four issues of Black & White magazine.

STRIPES by Barbara HaydenHonorable Mention(Click on image for larger view)

Barbara Hayden says, "My first mentor was my father, a professional photographer, WWII US Army trained. His studios and darkrooms were my playgrounds and classrooms for lots of photo magic. The School of Visual Arts (NYC 1968-1971) provided my formal education.

I am a Street-Shooting-Purist because my images are not posed nor studio lit. I aim to catch the quick glimpse of ordinary moments barely noticed.

Having been widowed twice, at 25 and 34 years old, my passion and involvement with photography abruptly halted while my healing and regrouping led me into the Deaf Community and a 30-year career in the field of education.

When technology made photography possible without a darkroom, I was focused and ready to reconnect. I bought a quality printer, editing software, and a DSLR (now OMD mirror-less).

I especially enjoy the crowds at the Rose Bowl Swap Meet and Grand Central Market in Los Angeles and anywhere in Manhattan.

Barbara Kantz is a college professor who teaches history and human services. She is interested in visual art as an important element in examining the human
condition. She developed an aesthetic sense from her father, a commercial artist.

She lives on Long Island, in an historic home on a tidal marsh. She photographs what is local and regional. She is an award winning photographer and songwriter.
She studied photography for one semester at Parsons School of Design.

OLD NEON by Barbara Kantz(Click on image for larger view)

VEGAS DINER by Barbara Kantz(Click on image for larger view)

GOOFY GUARDS FLAMINGOS by Carol Isaak(Click on image for larger view)

Carol Isaak says, "This work, everyday images, that are called Vernacular, have been of interest to me for as long as I have photographed. The quirkiest images seem to be disappearing from the environment."

Carol Isaak is an East Coast transplant to the West Coast. In the context of her move, she has found entertaining ways to report on the visual world inspired by becoming a touring docent at the Portland Art Museum. Over time, she has accumulated images (from many locations), which are at once photographic and painterly, reflecting her education as a painter. Her work has been collected in China and in the US.

She has had three one-person shows in Oregon, one at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Massachusetts, and one as a guest of the Chinese government in Lishui, China. She has been published in both Chinese and American journals, and is a four-time “invitee” into the Blue Sky Northwest Viewing Drawers in Portland, Oregon where each portfolio of 10 images resides for a year.

BREAK TIME by Chelle DelaneyHonorable Mention(Click on image for larger view)

Chelle Delaney says, "As well as exploring my local venues, such as these images from San Antonio Livestock Show, I love driving and wandering through the landscape and finding images that voluntarily offer themselves up from the natural and manmade environments. My concentration and distillation of these found elements are what I believe are often imprinted in memory. These sometimes full cinematic and scant imprints range from the odd juxtaposition of street work, to the graphic, and to the painterly that are captured in memory and reshaped over time."

Chelle Delaney graduated from the University of South Carolina where she studied English Literature. She later attended the School of Visual Arts and the Southwest School of Arts in San Antonio, Texas, to study photography. Her interest in photography grew out of her work as a print reporter and editor for newspapers, and trade and regional publications.

Daniel Roa says of this work, "Playful, distraught, and working hard. The group of photographs capture each individual as they're going about their day. Each individual is doing something completely different; from a little girl who was roller skating while eating a mandarin, to a boy who wept in the streets, the photographs portray a very relatable time in life."

Daniel Roa is currently attending the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) to achieve a B.F.A. in Photography with a minor in Business Management & Entrepreneurship. He is an eccentric, freelance photographer who specializes in fashion and scenic photography.

Creativity arises in conversation with constraints—the constraints enforced by the medium or media employed, by the long history of artistic attempts of those who have come before us and by the immediate circumstances of one’s life, attitude and self-imposed challenges. A key constraint of photography is that it anchors one, however tenuously, to some version of the here- and-now....to some present moment that must be grappled with visually.

Photography, as I have experienced it, struggles with the tension between subject and form differently than other visually-oriented media to the extent that it lives off of some aspect of the world as given. The streetscape, the varied and variable circumstances of light and shadow, the objects in the environment, among other things, all in some way have to be handled and taken into account. In this sense, I liken photography closer to sculpture than to painting.

My photography thrives on opportunism, on what the world presents to me, which must engage with the circumstances of the moment. The ability to craft a scene out of the flow of the everyday, to frame the minute as profound or the grand in miniature, to bring forth the play of line, shape, texture and color—these arise from the photographic eye in the midst of a pursuit."